Keeping the lighter flickering

One of the recipients of a Forest award at Boisdale last week was Alwyn Turner (above).

Eight weeks ago he wrote an essay for a website called Lion and Unicorn that features the work of five writers including Alwyn, an historian who writes about British culture and politics.

‘Time takes a cigarette’ (the opening words of ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide’, my favourite Bowie song) took a nostalgic look at some of the cigarettes and tobacco favoured by the author in the days when he was a smoker.

Even for a non-smoker like me, it was a hugely evocative piece, combining snippets of social history with pop culture.

Today, Alwyn is an ex-smoker who is ‘very happy to accept that the War on Tobacco has been a Good Thing’, although the ironic use of capital letters suggests a slightly more ambiguous verdict.

Nevertheless, I did wonder if he would accept our invitation to the Forest Summer Lunch because I understand why some people hesitate or decline to attend our events.

Also, he didn’t know he was going to be given an award until we announced it, so there was no incentive other than simple curiosity allied to an open mind.

I am delighted he did come because not only was he a charming and erudite guest, he has since written a rather lovely piece (‘Settin’ the woods on fire’) about being in receipt of an award ‘for the first time in my life’.

Of Forest, he writes:

Forest always insisted that they were not pro-smoking, but pro-freedom of choice. That means the organisation takes in a fair chunk of pure libertarianism, which goes further in its distrust of the state than I do, but even a liberal would have to be very pollyannaish not to be at least a little concerned by the censorious puritanism of successive governments. It’s good to have the likes of Forest around, that they might occasionally question the boundless self-confidence of Those Who Know Better.

As for the following passage, you might not agree with every word, but what a beautiful, even poetic, turn of phrase at the end:

Smoking is probably a lost cause, of course. Forest are, as their opponents would say, on the wrong side of history. But the wider war continues, as it has done for centuries, and there’s something to be said – as the shadows gather – for keeping the lighter flickering.

He then excels himself by squeezing in a reference to one of Britain’s comedy icons:

Tony Hancock once asked: ‘Do we get a badge for doing this?’ The answer, it turns out, is: Yes. Yes, we do. Well, stone me.

Wonderful stuff.